2nd suspect in N.S. chained teen case believed dead
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Police in northern Ontario say they believe they've found the body of the second suspect accused in the forcible confinement and rape of a 16-year-old boy in Nova Scotia.
Police said they found the body, believed to be 31-year-old Wayne Alan Cunningham, on Wednesday night near the car he was believed to have been driving in the area of Long Lac, about 260 km northeast of Thunder Bay. The spot is near where the first suspect, David James Leblanc, 47, was arrested Sunday night, RCMP said in a release Thursday morning.
The pair were believed to have been travelling together. Police said when Leblanc was found, he was in rough shape and appeared to have been outdoors for a while.
The cause of Cunningham's death is under investigation, however police said foul play isn't suspected.
Cunningham and Leblanc were wanted for charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement, after a 16-year-old boy told police he was scooped off the street in Halifax, chained up and raped for two weeks in a remote cabin in Upper Chelsea, about 125 km west of Halifax.
The teen managed to escape, making it 2 km down a gravel road and through the woods with his wrists and ankles still chained together. A couple found him in their yard and cut his shackles. The teen recently visited the couple to thank them.
Leblanc was already awaiting trial on sexual assault charges against two boys, aged two and five, in different towns in Nova Scotia, and on charges he produced child pornography. Police say he is being held under guard at a Thunder Bay hospital and is too ill to fly just yet.
"As soon as he is better, he will be transported back to Nova Scotia so he can face these serious allegations," RCMP Sgt. Alain LebBlanc said.
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